Whose opportunity is this?

On January 11, 2024, the research team of the China-Laos Railway project had the opportunity to travel to explore along the Laos-China Railway route and meet and talk with Thai trade promotion officials in Kunming as well as Thai entrepreneurs in Kunming. The Thai retail and wholesale entrepreneur Yunnankan-Thai Guangda Trading Company set up a retail store at YUNFANG Mall, which has a sign out front saying Thai Distribution Center in Kunming. Inside the room is full of grocery stores selling Thai products and wooden decorations, including machinery. Outside, there are rows of restaurants with strange Thai names or missing spaces in spelling, such as "Fat People", "Lime Favorite", and "Southeast Asia". Inside the mall, there is only the first floor with products from Thailand, most of which are owned by Chinese people. While there are only 3 grocery stores owned by Thai people, one of which is Yunnankan-Thai Guangda Trading, which has opened a storefront under the name "Kinnaree" for more than 17 years and has been in service through all kinds of difficulties and obstacles, from trying to import products in accordance with Chinese law to managing the transportation system. The problem of the import system that relies on the discretion of the officials in considering makes each import difficult and may also have some additional costs. However, Mr. Chon, one of the company's pioneers, added that since 2022, China has had the GACC system or General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China, which is a registration system for food manufacturers exporting to China. This makes importing and exporting easier because it is checked by an AI system. The development of this system makes importing goods from Thailand to China a convenient and fast system that complies with the specified standards without the discretion of the officials. In terms of current transportation, most goods are containers via Guangzhou Port because they are cheap and most goods are dry goods that are not at risk of spoilage or expiration easily. However, Mr. Chon gave information that the company currently does not have transportation via the Laos-China Railway because there are still few players on this route, resulting in high transportation costs, which further increases the cost of goods. Mr. Chon believes that if transportation costs are lower, sending goods via the Laos-China Railway may be another option that the company will choose in the future.